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Category Archives: kids birthday

Our family tradition continues. The birthday person gets to choose the shape of their birthday cake. My son chose a popcorn bucket in honor of the movie birthday party. Fruit leather was the stripes and we made sticky popcorn for the top!!

My son turned 1 this year. Its amazing how everyone said it would fly by and I believed them and really really tried to live in the moment and cherish every second. It still flew by!

However, the fun part is that we got to throw a big Baseball themed 1st Birthday Party.

Some fun elements were a flag banner that featured photos from every month of life from birth to 12 months. It was a fun way to show guests how much he’s grown and changed. And a “Happy Birthday” banner hung above the high chair.

A sandwich board chalkboard on the curb guided guests the gate leading to the backyard. Above the gate hung another flag banner that said “Admissions” and a little “Gate B” sign on the gate for fun. (B is for Bennett) As guests entered the backyard, a table was set up with some fun ballpark goodies.

• Cotton Candy hanging on a tree branch
• Apothecary jars and mason jars filled with peanuts and sunflower seeds
• Vintage cracker jacks wrapped up with a tag that said “Thank You for Helping to Make Bennett’s Birthday a Grand Slam.”
• Some classic treats like Red Vines, Big League Chew, Twix and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
• An old wooden bat for guests to sign for the birthday boy
• And some pictures from a recent photoshootOf course, what’s a baseball party without baseball cupcakes…. I made some Padres pennant flag toppers since the San Diego Padres are my husbands favorite team. The tables were covered with a light gray cloth and baseball jersey pinstripe overlays. The centerpieces were a 2’x2′ astroturf square with apothecary jars filled with baseballs and mason jars in the four corners with a single white rose (from Eufloria) to represent a baseball diamond. And finally, a snack bar filled with some yummy classics: hot dogs, fritto boats, nachos, pretzels, churros and some fresh fruit.

We played wiffle ball in the yard and I made a “Schmitz Stadium” flag banner to hang above the “ball field.” We purchased foam fingers for the teams and to top it off… I made family shirts for our little nuclear family. It has our names and ages on the back.

It was a blessed day for my little man. So much fun hanging out with family and friends.

Cole’s second party was a moon theme. I think it is fun to have the theme for a party be centered around one of your child’s first words. One of Cole’s favorite words is moon…

For favors I ordered each child a Frank Asch book. He writes these cute books about a bear and his adventures with the moon. On the inside of the books I put Cole’s picture with some border paper behind it and wrote a note to each child from Cole. These were displayed along with a picture of Cole on a table by the door where presents were dropped off.

The party was an evening dinner and the decorations were hanging stars and a moon with little twinkly lights all over. The stars were made out of thick cardstock. I cut out the star and then scored the midlines on the inside with a dull razorblad so they would bend out. Then I put a silver bell between two stars and taped them together to create a 3D effect. This idea is from martha stewart, and you can find a template on her website if you search for stars. The moon is made out of cardboard and painted with acrylic paint. I just traced a dinner plate and then moved it a little until the moon was the right “phase” and traced again! The table cloth was dark navy blue with glittery specks on it.

The cake was also a modification of a martha stewart recipe, also on her website. It is made of 50 thin wafer like chocolate cookies. The star and moon are frosted with Royal Icing and stuck on top. I made way too many cookies, so I made Cole his own little cake with a star on top. One thing I did differently from the recipe is I added marscapone cheese to the whipped cream. This makes the cream stiffer and allows you to put the cake together earlier without it getting soggy or the whipped cream melting. You add one small container of cheese for every pint of whipping cream. This is a great idea for any dessert that has a whipped cream topper that you want to assemble ahead of time.

Cole’s first birthday party’s theme was orange and blue polka dots…. cause who doesn’t like polka dots!?! I cut out polka dots of all different sizes and scattered them over the tables with food. A buffet table by the entry way had a book with pictures of Cole his first year and a basket with polka dot cards. People would write a birthday wish or memory of cole on the cards. This explained on the invitiation to be instead of gifts. Also on the buffet were the favors for the kids. I bought paper CD envelopes and cowboy cookies to put inside them. The cookies showed through the window. Tables of hors d’oeuvres were through the house and outside we hung Christmas lights on the pergola. I cut circles about 2 inches in diameter out of transparent blue and orange paper and then taped two circles on either side of each light so that the lights shined through the paper and made the outside glow with polka dots.

The cake…. that was the main event. It was the first time I had made a two layer cake and used fondant. I watched a you tube video that showed me how to use the fondant and a video on making wedding cakes that taught me how to make the layered cake. I made a practice cake earlier in the month and the final product took me two days to make. :) Maybe that will be another entry all together…

The guest of honor had a great time digging into the cake and it was fun to hang out with friends and family without the pressure of all the traditional birthday party games and eat good food.

Birthdays were a big deal in my house growing up, and the tradition was on your birthday you got to pick the shape of your cake. I have tried to continue that tradition with the boys and some of our friends. Here are some that have been done. I’ll add more later.

Kedrick’s third birthday he very specifically requested a strawberry tree and a bush!

Ryan’s ping pong birthday

My first fondant cake for Cole’s first birthday. Wires with polka dots spring out of the top.